How to Build a Photography Website: Galleries, Client Proofing and Bookings

How to build a photography website: fast galleries, image sizes, private client galleries, booking forms, and when a photo-hosting service is the better pick.

Mythex Team · 2026-09-29 · 6 min read

A photography website has one job: make the right people want to book you. That means a few carefully chosen galleries that load fast on a phone, a clear idea of what you offer and roughly what it costs, and an enquiry form that captures the date and details you need to reply. Everything else — client proofing, online booking, print sales — is optional and should be added only if it saves you real work. An AI app builder can produce the first version from a single paragraph; the effort goes into curating photos and getting image loading right.

What the site needs

Data

A pure portfolio can be static — photos and text in the code, no database. You need a database once you add any of these:

Table	Key fields
Galleries	Title, slug, category, cover image, order, public or private
Photos	Gallery, file key, width, height, alt text, caption, order
Enquiries	Name, email, shoot type, date, location, budget range, message, status
Client galleries	Client name, access token or password, expiry date, download allowed yes/no

Storing width and height for every photo lets the page reserve space before the image arrives, which stops the layout jumping around as it loads.

Permissions

Visitors see public galleries only. Clients see their own private gallery and nothing else. You, the owner, see everything plus the enquiry inbox. If you never plan private galleries, you only need a login for yourself.

Decisions and trade-offs

Static site or app with a database

If you update your galleries a few times a year, a static site is simplest: you ask the AI to swap photos and republish. If you add shoots every week, or want clients to have galleries, build a small admin area where you upload photos and arrange galleries without touching code.

Where the photos live

Photos are the heaviest thing on the site. Options, from simplest to most flexible:

In the project itself. Fine for a few dozen optimised images on a static site.
Your app's file storage. Uploaded through an admin page, served from storage. Watch the size: storage is usually billed by volume.
A dedicated image service or CDN that resizes on the fly. Worth it for large archives.

Whatever you choose, keep your originals somewhere else. The website is a shop window, not a backup.

Layout

Grid, masonry, full-screen slideshow or a single vertical column. Masonry flatters mixed portrait and landscape shots; a single column works best on phones and for storytelling. Pick one per gallery and keep captions short.

Enquiry form or real-time booking

Most photographers do better with an enquiry form: dates, locations and packages usually need a conversation. Online booking with fixed slots makes sense for short, repeatable sessions — headshots, mini-sessions, pet portraits. The booking app guide covers slots and deposits.

A first prompt that works

Build a photography website for Lena Ortiz, a wedding and portrait photographer based in Lisbon who travels across Portugal. Pages: home with a full-width hero image and a "Check your date" button; three galleries (Weddings, Couples, Portraits) in a masonry grid with a lightbox; about; packages with "from" prices (Elopement from €1,200, Full day from €2,800, Portrait session from €250); and an enquiry form asking for names, email, date, venue or location, guest count and a message. Save enquiries in a database and show them on a private admin page with a status (new, replied, booked, declined). Serve every photo in several sizes as WebP with lazy loading and reserved dimensions so the page does not jump. Quiet, editorial design with lots of white space and a serif heading font. Mobile-first.

It sets the audience, the galleries, the prices, the form fields and — importantly — the image-loading rules, which an AI will not always apply unless asked.

Build steps

Pick the photos first. Choose the galleries and the 15–30 images for each before you build anything. This is the hardest and most valuable step.
Generate the site with a prompt like the one above, then review it on a phone-size preview.
Fix image loading. Check that images are resized, lazy-loaded and do not shift the layout. See how to make your website faster.
Wire the enquiry form to a database and to an email notification through your own email provider, so you hear about enquiries quickly.
Protect the admin page with a login before real enquiries arrive.
Add alt text and page titles. Describe each photo briefly ("bride and groom walking along a cliff path at sunset") and give each gallery page its own title and description.
Private client galleries, if you need them: unguessable links, optional password, expiry date, and a download button that only appears when you allow it.
Publish, connect your domain, and send the link to two past clients to check it on their phones.

Common mistakes

Uploading camera originals. A 20 MB file per photo makes the site feel broken on mobile data.
Too many photos. Visitors judge you by your weakest image. Cut hard.
No prices at all. You spend time replying to people who cannot afford you.
Right-click blocking and heavy watermarks. They annoy visitors and do not stop anyone determined. Share web-sized files and keep originals private instead.
Private galleries on guessable URLs like /gallery/smith-wedding. Use long random tokens.
Missing alt text. It hurts accessibility and throws away search traffic from image results.
A contact form that silently fails. Send yourself a test enquiry after every change to the form.

When a ready-made product is the better choice

If your main need is delivering large sets of full-resolution images to clients, with favourites, proofing and print sales, a dedicated client-gallery service is built for exactly that and will be less work than building your own storage, downloads and print fulfilment. Website builders with photography templates are also fine if you want a simple portfolio and are happy with their layouts.

Build your own site when you want a design that is yours, an enquiry or booking flow that matches how you work, or a site that ties into other things you run — a CRM, a shop, a mini-session calendar. Many photographers do both: a custom website that links to a photo-delivery service for the galleries themselves.

Building it with Mythex

With Mythex you describe the site in chat, watch it appear in a live preview, and publish to a mythex.ai address or your own domain (custom domains are on Pro). Photos you upload through an admin page go into the project's file storage, which is added when the app needs uploads; the Free plan caps storage at 1 GB, and stored files and downloads spend from your credit balance, so keep web-sized copies rather than originals. Enquiries go into a Postgres database the agent adds when you ask to save them. Email notifications and client logins are wired to your own providers — Mythex does not send email or run end-user login for you.

For a starting point, try the photography portfolio, masonry photo gallery or studio photo site templates, or read the broader portfolio website guide.

Questions

What should a photography website include?

A small number of strong galleries grouped by the kind of work you want to be hired for, an about page with a real photo of you, clear pricing or a starting price, and an enquiry form that asks for the date, location and type of shoot.

How do I stop a photography website from loading slowly?

Never serve the camera original. Resize each photo to a few web sizes, use a modern format such as WebP or AVIF, lazy-load images below the fold, and let the browser pick the right size for the screen.

Can I give clients private galleries?

Yes. The simple version is an unlisted gallery behind a long random link. The safer version adds a password or client login, stores files privately, and serves downloads through links that expire.

Should I build my own or use a photo-hosting service?

If you mainly need to deliver thousands of images to clients with print sales and proofing, a dedicated photo-delivery service is usually cheaper and less work. Build your own when the website itself — your brand, your booking flow, your content — is what matters most.